Coronavirus data restored by CDC after disappearance sparked outcry

The Trump administration on July 16 reportedly restored previously public data on COVID-19 hospitalisation after it disappeared from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website a day before. The US agency on the official website informed that the data will no longer be updated due to a change in federal reporting requirements to hospitals. 

Earlier this week the US government changed its reporting rules and informed that the information on the availability of hospital beds and intensive care units is now being sent from hospitals directly to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instead of CDC. The Trump administration restored the lost data after the change sparked an outcry from public health experts, however, the restored information may not be updated going forward. Meanwhile, several health experts reportedly are now suspicious that the administration is trying to sideline the CDC. 

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While the Trump administration reportedly said that the new rule will speed up reporting, critics have sparked concerns about the transparency and public access to the data. Although, while speaking to an international media outlet, a spokesperson from HHS said that the department was ‘committed to being transparent with the American Public’. The spokesperson further informed that the officials have directed the CDC to re-establish the dashboards. 

Critics fear that if hospitals are already directly reporting to state health departments, they cannot a written release from the state to keep doing that. While the CDC will continue to collect the data of cases and deaths, other information, including bed occupancy, staffing levels, the severity level of coronavirus patients, ventilators on hand, and supplies of masks, gowns and other personal PPE, will be updated by the HHS. Michael Caputo, an HHS spokesman, reportedly said that the change is meant to result in faster and more complete reporting. 

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Trump administration trying to ‘blind CDC’ 

Meanwhile, with increasing suspicion and concern over the new move by the Trump administration, Dr Thomas File, Jr., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said, “The data are the foundation that guides our response to the pandemic. Collecting and reporting public health data has always been a core function of the CDC”. 

Thomas further added, “The administration should provide funding to support data collection and should strengthen the role of CDC to collect and report COVID-19 data”. 

Other health experts have also said that the change appears to be consistent with administration moves in recent months that have sidelined the CDC from the role it has played in other epidemics, as the public's primary source of information. Experts noted that the Trump administration has been trying to ‘silence the CDC’ and with the new move, experts believe that the administration is now trying to ‘blind the CDC as well’. 

(Image/Inputs: AP) 

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